Springfield, Missouri News Media fails at Barack Obama visit.

Who needs paid media with coverage like this.

After reviewing various area news media interviews and news reports about Senator Barack Obama’s visit to Springfield, Missouri yesterday I am beyond stunned. The contrast between how the local media covered the two candidates for President of the United States could not be more stark.

The best interview of the day goes to the News-Leader’s Chad Livengood, at least there was an attempt to get details. Though it still felt like the rest of the area reporting in that it was a puff piece.

On the one hand when Senator McCain visited Springfield there was a lot of time spent on protestors and packaging of McCain in a combative and challenging manner. Not that this is a bad thing since candidates should convince Americans of their proposals and policy initiatives.

Yet when Obama arrived today everything was hyped and there was a sore lacking anaylsis of what was being said, for what ever reason. It was like a rock star arrived and no one dared challenge the candidate on a number of issues.

For instance, lets talk energy policy a little bit. Senator Obama was asked by KY3 reporter David Catanese how he would work with Republicans if he were elected. He bridged straight to discussing energy conservation and touched on supply, but point blank said that we could not drill our way out of the problem. Besides toeing the Democrat talking point on the matter going unchallenged (note that Catanese challenged senator McCain on his talking points with the issue of Iran), Catanese apparently failed to do his home work and ask Senator Obama about his statement regarding “inflation of tires” as being the way to get us out of the energy crisis we are in.

Chad Livengood did a little better in getting specifics out of Senator Obama, but again failed to challenge talking points, especially on cap and trade. There was no follow up at all regarding how businesses or the nation would be able to deal with trillions of dollars lost in GDP and thousands of jobs lost. Yes, that means it hurts people like me and you, not just “evil” corperations.

Then there was the whole “change” thing.

Senator Obama claimed in his interviews and speech that McCain and Republicans were promising the “same old thing” when it comes to policies coming out of Washington. Again, no one challenged this. No one. Not a single soul. Never mind that nearly every one of the policies which Senator Obama is pushing for comes from the Carter era of legislation or straight from what Democrats were pushing for since before.

In fact not a single soul asked what new and innovative legislative accomplishments Obama pushed for while in the Senate, let alone one which was truly bipartisan.

I wont get into the lies spoken by Obama regarding taxes and how reporters failed to ask about sole proprietorships, small businesses or individuals. For instance, Democrats are planning to allow the Bush Tax cuts to sunset in 2010. This constitutes a huge tax increase for everyone and means that families will again get hit with the marriage penalty among other details.

Did I mention how reporters failed to follow up with a question of continuing the 110th Congress’s desire to tax and spend or expand the power of government; which is in diameteric opposition to what many in this country believe? Guess that didnt happen, did it?

In any case, the worst skip of the day, though, was when Senator Obama went not just negative, but over board negative. Not a single outlet reported on a comment Senator Obama made yesterday in Springfield and again in Union, MO.

It took ABC’s Political Punch by Jake Tapper to point out that in Senator Obama’s speech he acused Republicans and the McCain campaign of being racistist and xenophobs. No, I am not making this up. The full story can be read here. Be sure to read it. All of it in its entirety.

Let me excerpt this in a couple of places.

Obama continued: “And so the only way they figure they’re going to win this election is if they make you scared of me. So what they’re saying is, ‘Well, we know we’re not very good but you can’t risk electing Obama. You know, he’s new, he’s… doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency, you know, he’s got a, he’s got a funny name…’

Obama made similar comments earlier in the day in Springfield, Mo.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but does it not seem as if Obama just said McCain and his campaign — presumably the “they” in this construct — are saying that Obama shouldn’t be elected because he’s a risk because he’s black and has a foreign-sounding name?

The Obama campaign says no, no, no, certainly not, he was talking about his “opponents” in general, writ large, the talk radio hosts and smear artists and such.

Then in Union, Mo., this evening, Obama seemed to specifically accuse McCain and the GOP of peddling racism and xenophobia…

“But, since they don’t have any new ideas the only strategy they’ve got in this election is to try to scare you about me. They’re going to try to say that I’m a risky guy, they’re going to try to say, ‘Well, you know, he’s got a funny name and he doesn’t look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills and, and they’re going to send out nasty emails.

Jake Tapper continues and explains a number of examples where McCain condemned just the type of stuff Senator Obama is acusing him and Republicans of doing. In fact Tapper writes.

There’s a lot of racist xenophobic crap out there. But not only has McCain not peddled any of it, he’s condemned it…

What I have not seen is it come from McCain or his campaign in such a way to merit the language Obama used today. Pretty inflammatory.

Note again, that not a single soul here in any of the media outlets caught this. They were listening to the same speech and it raised a red flag to no one.

I will leave it to the individual to interpret this as they may, but if it does not create a cause for concern, it should.

It also proves a point in how much the media at large, both local and national, are in the tank for Senator Obama. So much for the media watch dog.